I am wanting to do a trade. I would LOVE to try your: SOLAR FLARE variety and only need about 5 seeds. I have these varieties that I did not notice on your list: Burgess Lemon (only 5 seeds from Wintersown and several years old) Hovarth (only 2 seeds left from Wintersown and several year old) Peacevine Cherry (10 seeds from Kenyon Organics, probably 2 years old) God Love (5 seeds from Kenyon Organics, probably 2 years old) Abe Lincoln (about 10 from Livingston Seed Co, less than year old) San Marzano (about 10 from Organic Ferry-Morse, less that year old) I am rather new to this forum and unsure how to proceed. Is there a way you can message me to exchange addresses? I can send a SASE.

Around here, its sandstone bedrock with shallow, loess soils. I've been thinking about the role of adding organic matter - the hay/alfalfa growers will, every few years, plow everything under and start over. The alfalfa guys will do 5-6 years alfalfa, then grow a crop of oats and plow that under, then replant alfalfa. Orchards grow grass, many have sheep/goats grazing, or at least they mow stuff. On my property, when it comes to the long-term plantings, I heavily mulch my fruit and ornamental trees, berries, all the flower beds. The reasons are are many - cuts way down on weeding, feeds the plants, and above all in this desert environment, helps keep the soil temps and moisture more even. These last few days, I'm getting the vegetable garden ready for planting. The process involves mixing up last years' mulch with fresh grass clippings, then watering the whole garden - which dries out considerably over the winter and gets very difficult to work - to soften and moisten the soil so the worms can get to work. In a few days, if I pull back the mulch, I'm going to find a worm every inch chewing way on the mulch. In a week - 10 days, the ground will be soft enough and loose enough from the worm activity that I can easily do all the planting. So to me, the secret to success here is continually adding organic matter in the form of mulch - and now that I think about it, I let the worms figure out the rate of incorporation into the soil.

As one of the regulars on the fruit message board has said, gardening is the gateway drug to starting an orchard. That has certainly been the case for me. Lemon juice dressing is completely by feel, dare I say it's an art? ;) 1. Give a fresh lemon a good scrubbing (just get all the dirt off). If your lemons are small, try using a couple. The idea here is to use fresh right away rather than make a huge batch. 2. Use a microplane and zest the lemon. Don't dig into the white pith of the lemon. You probably know this from making Lemoncello. 3. Juice the lemon into a small bowl. 4. Add high quality extra virgin olive oil to taste. I don't use much, maybe 3-4 splashes. 5. Which way you take it from here is highly variable: - Add a few shakes of 21 seasoning salute (Trader Joes) -- or chopped or dried Italian herbs. -- or just salt and cracked pepper. - Maybe a slash of worchester sauce. - Maybe a splash or two of high quality balsamic vinegar. - And/or maybe a dab of Dijon mustard to taste and to emulsify. 5. Whip it good with a fork 6. Dip in a pinky and taste. 7. Add more of something to taste if needed and/or serve over fresh salad greens right away.

Thanks Northspruce I didn't use Sunsprite as a cutting rose last year. I'm just now planning a bed that can be used for cutting purposes. I have seen your photo's of Garden Party and they are very lovely, it will make it on the list just in case I see it offered for sale locally in the spring. Glad to hear that the scent is good. Fragrant Cloud can go in Hubby's section, he would like the colour. Perfecta would be nice as I can always mix it with some smellies. Bucks I have 2 Bucks, Distant Drums and Folksinger. DD is a winner and will go in the ground this spring, I put it in a pot when I got it last year because it was very tiny and wanted it to grow on some. I do love this rose. Folksinger was a PM nightmare last year, if it doesn't shape up this year it will have a date with the shovel. Bucks are generally very hard to find around here. Austins I have Winchester Cathedral, Tradescant, Abe Darby, & The Mayflower already. Since they are doing well this spring I am adding Brother Cadfael, Christopher Marlow, Crocus Rose, Heritage, Spirit of Freedom, & Sharifa Asma. The HT's and Floribunda's are Hubby's favourite flower form so I was looking to add some he would like that we can use as cut flowers as well. Hopefully others will chime in with their suggestions and I will have a good list to take shopping. Cathy